Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord True on 6 and 22 June (HL302 and HL811), whether the Cabinet Office will write to each Government Department asking them to indicate how many UK-based (1) Permanent Secretaries, and (2) Senior Civil Servants have been working from abroad at any time in the last 24 months.

As I stated in my response to HL302 on 6 June and HL811 on 23 June, the Cabinet Office does not hold departmental information about civil servants in UK-based senior leadership roles working from abroad.

Working abroad has always been by exception in the Cabinet Office and is not permitted unless there is a specific business need or under the most exceptional of circumstances (an example of which might be where an employee’s partner is a civil servant and is permanently posted abroad).

This is still the current position of the Cabinet Office. In future, we will ensure that communications are sent to departments, as part of wider communications on senior resourcing, to highlight that departmental records should be kept up to date.